Kalidium is a genus of in the plant family Amaranthaceae. The species are shrubby distributed in Southeast Europe, Southwest Asia and Central Asia to China.
Description
The species of
Kalidium grow as
or low
. The stems are much branched and glabrous. Older stems are not jointed, younger stems may appear jointed or not. The alternate
Leaf are fleshy, glabrous, stem-clasping and decurrent, nearly orbicular to semiterete, their free blades 0.5–12 mm long.
The pedunculate inflorescences are spike-like, with alternate scale-like free bracts. In the axil of each bract, there are one to three flowers, partially fused to each other, to the bract and to the inflorescence axis, appearing sunken into fleshy axis. The flowers are bisexual.
The 4-5-lobed perianth consists of four to five connate . There are two
In fruiting phase, the perianth becomes thick and spongy and encloses the fruit. Towards the apex, the perianth is widened, flattened, and furnished with a wing-like margin. The fruit wall (pericarp) is membranous. The vertical seed is disc-shaped with tuberculate to papillose surface. It contains a semi-annular embryo and copious perisperm (feeding tissue).
Distribution and habitat
The species of
Kalidium are distributed from
Southeast Europe to
Southwest Asia and
Central Asia to
China.
The plants are and grow in saline , on Alkalinity soils, at margins of , and at the shores of .
Systematics
The genus
Kalidium was first published in 1849 by Alfred Moquin-Tandon.
was chosen as
lectotype of the genus.
A synonym is
Kalidiopsis Aellen.
The genus comprises six species:
-
Kalidium caspicum (L.) Ung.-Sternb. - widely distributed from Southeast Europe, Caucasus and eastern Turkey, Southwest Asia, and Central Asia to China (northern Xinjiang).
-
Kalidium cuspidatum (Ung.-Sternb.) Grubov - occurring in Mongolia and China (Gansu, Hebei, Inner Mongolia, Ningxia, Qinghai, Shaanxi, Xinjiang).
-
Kalidium foliatum (Pall.) Moq. - widely distributed from Southeast Europe, Southwest Asia, Central Asia, Russia (southern Siberia), Mongolia, to China (northern Gansu, northern Hebei, Heilongjiang, Inner Mongolia, Ningxia, Qinghai, Xinjiang).
-
Kalidium gracile Fenzl - occurring in Mongolia and China (Inner Mongolia, Xinjiang).
-
Kalidium schrenkianum Bunge ex Ung.-Sternb. - occurring in Kazakhstan and China (Xinjiang).
-
Kalidium wagenitzii (Aellen) Freitag & G.Kadereit (Syn.: Kalidiopsis wagenitzii Aellen) - endemic in Turkey (Anatolia, Tuz Gölü area).
[Gudrun Kadereit, Ladislav Mucina & Helmut Freitag: Phylogeny of Salicornioideae (Chenopodiaceae): diversification, biogeography, and evolutionary trends in leaf and flower morphology, In: Taxon, Volume 55 (3), 2006, p. 623-624, 631-632.]
[Alfred Moquin-Tandon: Salsolaceae. in: De Candolle (Hrsg.): Prodromus Systematis Naturalis Regni Vegetabilis 13(2). Masson, Paris, 1849, p. 146. ( first publication scanned at BHL)]
[Mikko Piirainen 2009: Kalidium. In: P. Uotila, (ed.): Chenopodiaceae. In: Euro+Med Plantbase - the information resource for Euro-Mediterranean plant diversity.]
[Gelin Zhu, Sergei L. Mosyakin, Steven E. Clemants: Kalidium. In: Wu Zhengyi, Peter H. Raven, Deyuan Hong (eds.): Flora of China. Volume 5: Ulmaceae through Basellaceae. Science Press/Missouri Botanical Garden Press, Beijing/St. Louis 2003, , p. 355.]
External links
